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RLCS, Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 74 – Pages 1488 to 1505 [Research] | DOI:10.4185/RLCS-2019-1395en |ISSN 1138-5820 | Year 2019 How to cite this article in bibliographies / References C González Quintero, A-M Forero Ángel, S Ramírez González (2019): “The war that lingers”: Construction and transformations of the body in the narratives and rhetoric of Colombia’s professional soldiers”. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 74, pp. 1488 to 1505. http://www.revistalatinacs.org/074paper/1395/78en.html DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2019-1395en

“The war that lingers”: Construction and transformations of the body in the narratives and rhetoric of Colombia’s professional soldiers [1] Catalina González Quintero [CV] [ ] [ ] Professor of Philosophy. Universidad de los Andes, UNIANDES / University of Los Andes, Colombia cgonzale@uniandes.edu.co Ana María Forero Ángel [CV] [ ] [ ] Professor of Anthropology. Universidad de los Andes, UNIANDES / University of Los Andes, Colombia am.forero260@uniandes.edu.co Simón Ramírez González [CV] [ ] [ ] Research Assistant. Universidad de los Andes, UNIANDES / University of Los Andes, Colombia sm.ramirez1794@uniandes.edu.co Abstract: This article analyses the ways in which Colombian soldiers narrate their bodily experiences at the military school, the combat zone, and the Private José María Hernández Health Battalion (BASAN). To be precise, the article deals with the narratives in which the lowest ranks of the Colombian National Army express how they became warriors, wounded elements and patients who wait for the medical board to determine their percentage of disability while planning for a future. The study accounts for the ways in which the institution’s “expendables” (Butler, 2006) describe their corporalities. We refer to professional soldiers as “expendables” based on testimonies in which soldiers refer to themselves as the institution’s “cannon fodder”, as combatants that are easily replaceable, and as elements that the Army does not protect once their “useful life has expired”. Keywords: body, Colombian army, war experiences, narratives. Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Methodological considerations. 3. “The Army does not tolerate machos”: building the combatant’s body. 4. Narratives of survival: the precariousness and vulnerability of the body in the combat zone. 5. Defeated bodies: Professional soldiers besieged in their materiality. 6. Conclusions. 7. References

Translation by CA Martínez-Arcos (PhD, University of London)

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